Their report finds the incidence of severe downpours and snowstorms is up 30 percent around the nation. The jump was 65 percent in San Diego County.

Severe rains are just one indicator that global warming is changing the climate.

"When they previously would've been once every 12 months, they are now happening once every seven months," said Bernadette Del Chiaro of Environment California. "So it's not sort of in our imagination that our weather is getting crazier, it actually is statistically becoming more erratic and happening more frequently."

The storms do little to help the region's dry conditions, because Del Chiaro said it is usually too difficult to capture that water.